A SCHIZOPHRENIC who ran at a night warden brandishing a knife has been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.

Benjamin Emanuel did not know that warden Rod Lock had police with him when he erupted in anger at bedsits in Chatham.

One of the officers later described how 31-year-old Emanuel was "screaming and shouting like a banshee" with his eyes wide and staring.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that Emanuel was resident at a building in Chelmar Road, run by Ashdown Medway Accommodation Trust.

John Causer, prosecuting, said Mr Lock was apprehensive about Emanuel because he had been made aware that he had tried to obtain guns.

Mr Lock went to Emanuel’s room on April 7 and asked him to turn his music down. His response was to turn it up and become aggressive.

Mr Lock went to his office and called the police. Two officers arrived and accompanied him to Emanuel’s room.

It was then that he came running out holding the knife above his head. The officers drew their truncheons and told him to drop the weapon.

He did as he was told and was arrested. As he was handcuffed and taken away he swore at Mr Lock and spat in his eye.

Mr Causer said: "Mr Lock was very shaken about what happened. He said he believed he would have been stabbed if the officers had not been there."

Emanuel, who has been detained at the Trevor Gibbens psychiatric unit at Maidstone Hospital, made claims about being abused, electrocuted and beaten.

Dr Matthew Seabune-May said Emanuel, who admitted affray and common assault, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and there was a risk of harm to the public.

He said: "The problem with managing him is that he is very good at masking his symptoms. That is the problem people have supervising him. If he becomes unwell, it is difficult to spot."

Judge Michael Lawson, QC, agreed to make the hospital order without limit of time.